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Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library

The Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library is a central academic library of the University of Haifa,[1] and one of the largest in Israel. It is also one of the most progressive Israeli libraries in terms of service, collection, physical space, and library information systems.

Since its founding in 1963, the library has operated under one roof and is managed by a central administration. The library offers academic information expertise for locating the wide range of material in its holdings and accessible via the Internet. The library's role in the university's academic activity is based on professional specialization, which enables provision of information services in a wide variety of disciplines and information types.


The library devotes many resources to the development, preservation and digitization of special collections, such as dissertations, research publications, historical photographs of the Land of Israel, and archives of theatrical and performing arts. The collections, which are displayed under Digital Projects and Archives – Digital Collections, contribute to instruction and research in the university and beyond. Special emphasis is placed on ensuring accessibility in both the short and long term to the academic community and to the general public interested in matters of heritage preservation. An additional distinctive project is the production of the Index to Hebrew Periodicals, a database of Hebrew Language articles and periodicals.

General Collection – Most books are located on the open shelves and may be borrowed for two weeks.

Reserves Collection – Numbers over 15,000 items, including: books for instructional use transferred to the collection by request of lecturers; a collection of psychological evaluation tests; and lecturers' private books made available for student use. Most items in this collection may be borrowed for three days, some for one night only, and some are for in-house use.

Periodicals Collection – This collection is divided into Loazi (i.e., non-Hebrew) titles, Hebrew titles and . Periodicals may be borrowed for one week, by University staff members and Ph.D. students only. As of 2011, the Periodicals Collection held over 45,000 titles, including over 20,000 electronic journals.

microforms

Media Collection – Holds audio-visual library materials, such as , audio, music scores, maps, satellite images, aerial photography, atlases, globes and historical maps. Along with these items are the tools enabling use of non-print material (stereo, video and DVD systems). In addition, there are special collections of books in the fields of art, photography, geography, environmental studies, music, archeology and cartography, as well as relevant printed material accompanying the non-print collections.

video

Law Collection – Contains print and electronic materials, including legal literature from Israel and other countries: books, periodicals and legal encyclopedias. There are also reserve books, required readings for courses in the Law Faculty, by request of the lecturers; Israeli and foreign legislation and court decisions; and legal databases.

Psychological Tests Collection – Contains questionnaires and assessment instruments in a variety of fields, such as , occupational therapy, physiotherapy and learning disorders. To facilitate development of the collection, the library maintains ongoing contact with the various departments that make use of it. In addition, every questionnaire in dissertations – whether original, translated or adapted – is cataloged.

psychology

Dictionaries Collection – Includes dictionaries for many languages, which may be borrowed only for the purpose of examinations.

Children's Literature Collection – Holds about 22,000 books for leisure and informational reading, some 20,000 in Hebrew and 2000 in Arabic. The books may not be borrowed. Various activities in the areas of information literacy and encouragement of reading take place in the collection, for public-school and special-education pupils. The Subject Index to Children's and Youth Literature, developed by the library, makes it possible to search the collection by topic.

Rare Books Collection – Contains over 3000 books, including special items that can no longer be purchased, books issued in limited editions, and books that are important due to their binding. Among the items in the rare books collection are works of , single pages from the Geniza, and Spinoza’s "Theological-Political Treatise," including the author's handwritten notes.

Judaica

Aba Khoushy Archive – Holds many documents, lectures, protocols, pictures, and some personal items of Abba Khoushi from the years 1919–1969, which accumulated during his years in Israel as a public figure and party activist, as secretary of the Workers’ Council and mayor of Haifa from 1951 to 1969.

Haifa

All library items may be searched and retrieved by means of Primo – an Ex Libris Group unified search box in the library web site.


The library collection comprises over two million items, including books and periodicals (in printed and digital formats), online databases in a variety of disciplines, maps and other cartographic material, films, audio recordings, pictures and archival material.


The library's collections include:


In addition to the above, varied collections of digital photographs, as well as the Database for Israeli Theater Archives.

Services[edit]

As of 2012, some 160 computer stations are available to library visitors for searching and retrieving information. The library's resources are available to the university community from off-campus as well. The library has several helpdesks: Circulation and Interlibrary Loan; Reference; Reserves-Media and Periodicals. All helpdesks are concentrated at the entry level.


Users may also get assistance from the remote reference service, including replies via email and WhatsApp. The library also provides a service for photocopying, scanning, color printing, CD burning and document binding. Within the library building and most of the university there is access to free Wi-Fi.


Admission is free to visitors, including high-school students from 10th grade and up, but there is a charge for assistance with locating materials. Most of the library collections are freely accessible.

Library assessment activities[edit]

Since 2007, the library has regularly carried out library assessment activities aimed at determining the quality of its services based on user feedback via satisfaction surveys, wayfinding, usability and focus groups. These surveys examined: the physical environment, services, user needs, the collection, and user interfaces both within the library and via remote access.


Once every three years the library conducts a LibQUAL user satisfaction survey. LibQUAL, established and managed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in the United States, is an international survey that has been carried out in more than 1000 academic libraries worldwide. The University of Haifa Library is the first Israeli library to participate, and assisted in developing the Hebrew version of the survey.


The library maintains a dedicated website that publicizes all the assessment activities, the results of surveys, and actions taken by the library in light of the results.

Moshe Yogenstein – 1963–1969

Shmuel Sever – 1969–2000

Baruch Kipnis (z"l) – 2000–2005

Oren Weinberg – 2005–2011, Academic directors: Prof. Chaya Bar-Yitzchak, Prof. Yaakov Barnai, Prof.

Yoav Gelber

Pnina Erez – 2011–2018, Academic director: Prof. Yossi Ziegler

Naomi Greidinger – 2018–, Academic director: Prof. Dafna Erdinest-Vulcan, Prof. Daphne Raban

Official website

IHP – Index To Hebrew Periodicals

Library Assessment

Support the Library

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